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Tally's Blood

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Tally's Blood ASSOCIATION FOR SCOTTISH LITERARY STUDIES TEACHING NOTES: 2018 ASLS Tally’s Blood by Ann Marie Di Mambro Teaching notes and discussion questions for National 5 English Gillian Sargent As one of three dramas set by SQA for the Critical Reading component of the National 5 English exam, Ann Marie Di Mambro’s Tally’s Blood (first staged in 1989) is enjoying renewed popularity within Scottish schools. Di Mambro is a Scottish writer (b. 1950) best known for her dramatic works for the stage and television. Di Mambro was born in Glasgow to Italian parents. As the playwright has suggested, Tally’s Blood is a play which contains biographical resonance for her: The Italian immigrant experience is one I know well from my own background […] I was brought up with an awareness of my Italian identity and with stories of what happened to Italians in Scotland during the war. I frequently resented my Italian upbringing and the ways it stopped me fitting in with my peers […]. (Introduction, Tally’s Blood, Hodder Gibson (2016), p. v.) Many of Di Mambro’s family experiences as an Italian–Scot (e.g. her grandparents owned The Cosy Corner café in Hamilton) no doubt informed the rich depiction of the Pedreschi family and the evocation of setting. The playwright’s other works for the stage include: Brothers of Thunder (first staged 1994), a thematically complex piece exploring the difficult relationship between an HIV-positive man and the Catholic church; The Letterbox (first staged 1989), a play which takes as its subject a woman who has been domestically abused by her husband and who has been forced out of the family home; and Ae Fond Kiss (first staged 2004, and not to be confused with the film of the same name and year), a compassionate tale of the unlikely budding friendship between the central protagonist Zed, and Lola – a prostitute with whom Zed has been gifted an hour to spend for his birthday. Di Mambro’s screenwriting credits are extensive and include writing for prime-time favourites such as Casualty, EastEnders, Taggart, and River City, as well as for the first ever long-running Gaelic drama serial broadcast in Scotland, Machair. In addition to writing prolifically for stage RANGE: and screen, Di Mambro shares her academic • National 5 English / Drama expertise, shaping the next generation of KEY TEXTS: screenwriters in her role as a lecturer-Professor at • Tally’s Blood (Hodder Gibson, 2016) • Brothers of Thunder (Nick Hern Books, 2015) Glasgow Caledonian University. • The Letterbox, published in Scot-Free (Nick Hern Books, 1990) • Ae Fond Kiss (unpublished) Association for Scottish Literary Studies, Scottish Literature, 7 University Gardens, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QH, Scotland Tel/Fax: +44 (0)141 330 5309 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.asls.org.uk Permission granted to photocopy for educational purposes only 1 ASSOCIATION FOR SCOTTISH LITERARY STUDIES TEACHING NOTES: 2018 ASLS PLOT to a man that he has arranged for her. The play ends on an up-beat note, a happily ever after of Taking place over the course of a turbulent sorts, with two couples reuniting and reaffirming nineteen-year period from 1936 to 1955, and their love. with the setting moving between Italy and Glasgow, Tally’s Blood follows the varying THEME IN TALLY’S BLOOD fortunes of three sets of couples: man and wife Rosinella and Massimo Pedreschi; Franco The first wave of Italian immigrants arrived Pedreschi and his lover Bridget Devlin; and in Scotland in the 1890s, ostensibly driven by Hughie Devlin (Bridget’s brother) and his best the lack of economic opportunity at home. friend/eventual girlfriend Lucia Ianelli (the By the 1930s, when the events of Tally’s Blood Pedreschi’s niece). The Second World War forms begin, many Italian families had established an ominous backdrop to this play. When war businesses – particularly cafes and shops – in breaks out, and Italy enters the fray as an ally Scotland. As a result, Italians were generally to Hitler’s Nazi Germany, the Pedreschi’s find regarded as industrious and hard-working. themselves embroiled in an ideological conflict However, when the Italian dictator Mussolini in their adoptive homeland. Despite Rosinella’s declared war on Britain in June 1940, the optimism that the family will not be made relatively positive experience of Italians living in targets, and her assertion that ‘Italians are good Scotland was to be marked indelibly. Established for this country. Who else is prepared to work till Italian communities were subject to vigilante eleven o’clock every night, eh? […] It’s no as if attacks, with many Scottish people viewing we take any jobs away from any Scotch people.’ this minority group within Scotland as an (Act 1:10), the Pedreschi’s shop comes under enemy of the British state. Many Italians were siege from local vigilantes armed with bricks faced with internment or deportation. In one and cries of ‘Get the Tallies! Fascist bastards’ of the highest profile incidents involving the (Act 1:12). Massimo is arrested and interned deportation of Italians, the Arandora Star, a ship in a Prisoner of War camp before eventually transporting an estimated 734 Italian prisoners being released. He is grief-stricken to learn of his of war to Canada, was torpedoed by a German father’s death aboard the Arandora Star. U-boat. Many Italian families in Scotland were Directly mirroring the political conflict is affected profoundly by this attack, with most Lucia’s battle with her over-bearing adoptive people knowing someone who died in this guardian, Rosinella. Blinded by a deep-rooted attack at sea. Di Mambro weaves the sinking prejudice against Scoto–Italian marriages, of the Arandora Star into Tally’s Blood as an Rosinella attempts to engineer Lucia’s romantic incident which directly and profoundly affects affairs by seeking out an Italian match for her the Pedreschi family when Massimo’s father niece. But as Lucia grows ever more headstrong dies. Racial hostility – both directed towards the and assertive she finds herself increasingly drawn Italian Pedreschis and generated by the family’s towards her best friend, Hughie. Lucia becomes matriarch, Rosinella – underpins this play. The resentful towards her aunt Rosie and her title, Tally’s Blood, as well as being a colloquial overbearing meddling. name for the raspberry sauce poured over When Lucia is called for by her father, ice cream, indicates the play’s main concerns Luigi, to return to Italy, Hughie and Rosinella with familial relationships, national identity are left heartbroken. In a revelatory scene, and conflict. The antagonism between Italian Bridget’s admission that Rosinella played a hand and Scottish communities is played out at the in her decision to abort her baby shames the microcosmic level in the play with the bickering matriarch into action. She makes Hughie her and infighting of the Pedreschis and Devlins. co-conspirator in a plot to reconcile the lovers, Whilst the context of the Second World defying Luigi’s wishes for Lucia to be married War is perhaps the most important one for 2 Permission granted to photocopy for educational purposes only ASSOCIATION FOR SCOTTISH LITERARY STUDIES TEACHING NOTES: 2018 ASLS understanding the theme of conflict, there are TEACHING ACTIVITIES other important historical issues that this play engages with. Scotland in the 1930s found itself Task One: Exploring the Big Issues affected by a global economic depression. Mass Although this play was first staged in 1989, its unemployment led to increased numbers living themes and issues are still very much relevant in poverty, which in turn resulted in diminishing to contemporary Scotland. Preliminary group living standards for the working classes. The discussions or homework research activities Devlins are the theatrical embodiment of on the text might take into consideration the this economic privation. In one of the most following topics and sub-categories: humbling scenes in the play, Bridget Devlin is forced to ask for a loan of money from Mr 1. The migrant experience in Pedreschi – a loan which we later learn will pay present-day Scotland for Bridget to abort her – and Franco’s – baby. social interaction between groups / the Through the character of Bridget Devlin integration of migrants into host culture / and the storyline concerning her abortion, Di shared notions of nationhood / the benefits of Mambro also attempts to explore the moral migration to the Scottish economy / Brexiteers question of family planning and birth control, vs Remainers and the issue of border control a complex issue at the time (as it remains today) owing to a general lack of awareness 2. Poverty in Scotland and availability of birth control in the period Child poverty / the concept of the working in which the play is set. This issue would poor / pensioners and material deprivation have been more complex within Catholic communities, given that the Catholic Church 3. Women’s rights fundamentally opposed (as it still does) the Abortion in Northern Ireland (as a part of the use of contraception. The law in Scotland did United Kingdom) not support women who wished to terminate pregnancies; a change in the law did not occur Pupils might find it rewarding to pursue one until 1967. In this context, then, Bridget is of these issues in a broadly discursive N5 folio acting unlawfully in seeking and subsequently piece. going through with an abortion. Rosinella’s ‘increasing horror’ (Act 2:8) as Bridget’s secret Task Two: Group Activity on Theme is revealed, would be a commonplace reaction There are three main themes covered in the play: for someone of Rosinella’s generation and faith. However, the audience is arguably encouraged to • Conflict be more sympathetic towards Bridget as, largely • Love (both romantic and familial) through Rosinella’s meddling in her private • Identity affairs, Bridget has convinced herself that she has no option but to go through with the abortion, Working collaboratively in small groups, pupils given that her child would not be economically should demonstrate their knowledge of theme or emotionally supported by its father or its by synthesising and condensing their detailed extended family.
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